lyrics

I came across the following music video from Cairokee on the Egypt subReddit. I don’t speak Arabic so I had no idea what the lyricist was saying, but I found the tone to be extremely powerful and really wanted to know what the message was, so I asked if anyone could provide a translation.

I received a personal message with a draft translation which I greatly appreciated. As well, another user was kind enough to post a more detailed translation to the subReddit.

Below you will find the translation of the lyrics and the music video. I believe the message will resonate not just with those struggling in the Arab world to dispose of their oligarchs and dictators, but with everyone across the globe struggling for freedom, social justice, equality, dignity, human rights, and with those who oppose the system.

Dance songs reflecting the new reality. The Guardian provides context:

In the long history of love songs the attention of a beautiful woman has been compared to many things – but perhaps only in Pakistan’s tribal belt would it be likened to the deadly missile strike of a remotely controlled US drone. [It’s] a sign of how the routine hunting down and killing of militants by unmanned CIA planes has leached into the popular imagination.

The repeated chorus: “My gaze is as fatal as a drone attack”. The hit for singer Sitara Younis follows her success last year with another love ballad, which warns a besotted man to keep his distance: “Don’t chase me, I’m an illusion, a suicide bomb.”

Maas Khan Wesal, a Pashtu music veteran who wrote the accompanying music, said the song had proved popular because it reflected the lives of Pashtu speakers on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.